


like brother, like sister

by soliloquies



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 23:29:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19283407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soliloquies/pseuds/soliloquies
Summary: Natsu is quiet for a time, and then asks, “Why do you like Kageyama?”Shouyou almost laughs at the question because he’s asked it so many times himself.///Natsu has some questions for her brother.





	like brother, like sister

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this piece literally two years ago and somehow never posted it. i found it while cleaning out my wips and thought it was kinda cute. hope you like it too! <3

“Nii-chan, Kageyama-kun is your boyfriend, right?”

Shouyou tears his gaze away from the TV, looking down at his little sister. It’s the kind of afternoon where you feel like doing absolutely _nothing_ , and he’s lounging around on the couch doing just that. Natsu is sitting on the other end of the couch, trying to get through her novel and watch _Dragon Ball Z_ at the same time.

It’s one of those days where he’s not in Tokyo scrambling at college and is instead at home, like the good old days.

Lately, Natsu has been becoming smart, too smart - she’s reading her book in English, _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ , and when Shouyou’s eyes popped out of his skull, she shrugged. “When I read it in Japanese, it feels like I’m not reading the real words. It’s hard, but I like it in English better.” Shouyou’s not sure he could get through the first page, even at nineteen.

Now Shouyou’s gaze is laced with curiosity. He’d noticed Natsu glancing at him every fifth second, then sighing and turning back to her book. Something’s up.

“Eh?” He turns to look at her just as there’s an explosion on screen. “Yeah. Why?”

Natsu frowns. “Why isn't he a girl?”

“What do you mean?” Shouyou gives her an amused look. “I can't exactly control that.”

She fidgets and sighs. “I mean, why don't you have a girlfriend?”

Shouyou’s brows furrow together, like when he's figuring out a play to use in volleyball or he’s wondering what to eat for dinner. “I… don't like girls like that.”

“Why not?”

He pauses, as if unsure of the answer himself. “I don't know,” he answers honestly. “But why are you asking me this now?”

Natsu freezes, like she’s not expecting the question.

Natsu looks away, to the floor, trying to count the frayed edges of the carpet. “There's a girl in my class…”

Shouyou blinks, surprised.

He knows he isn't the most mature of people, and nobody really asks for his advice. Natsu has always stood on her own two feet (she is smarter than him in so many ways, and knowing English isn’t even included in those) and so he's never had the chance to really be a big brother, other than to play with her when she asked him to.

Shouyou doesn't want to blow it, so he does what he normally does in his some of his best times and stops thinking.

“Come here,” he murmurs, tugging her closer, and onto his chest. She nestles there quietly, so unlike the usual Natsu that he knows, that he understands that this is something _important._

“What about the girl, Natsu?” he asks quietly. The TV is on mute, and there are vague flashes of color coming from the screen, but those are lost to the siblings.

Outside of the room there are clanks and crashes, then the sound of water running. Their mother must be doing the dishes.

Natsu is quiet for a time, and then asks, “Why do you like Kageyama?”

Shouyou almost laughs at the question because he’s asked it so many times himself. He decides it’s better to start somewhere simple.

“Well,” he explains, “Kageyama can sometimes be a jerk, and he’s mean, and he _definitely_ drinks too much milk, but I like him anyways. Even though he’s like that, he’s nice sometimes and he makes me smile, and he buys me pork buns.” Shouyou doesn’t want to overwhelm his sister, so he leaves all the important parts out - Kageyama is the only one who will always, always toss to him, and he’s the one that knows how to chase away Shouyou’s nerves, and he’s always there, right by his side. Shouyou can think of so many more reasons, but he doesn’t mention them. Kageyama just makes him _better._

Natsu scrunches up her nose. She thinks that dating Kageyama must be a lot of work for just _sometimes nice_ and free pork buns, and Shouyou realizes.

“I’m not explaining this right,” he laughs. “I really do like Kageyama,” Shouyou says genuinely. “That wasn’t even the answer to your question, I know. If you want to know why I like Kageyama instead of Yachi or someone else, then the answer is that Yachi doesn’t make my heart beat faster. Yachi doesn’t make me feel like I’m flying. Yachi doesn’t make me invincible. That’s Kageyama. And maybe it doesn’t even have to do with whether Kageyama is a boy or a girl. Maybe it’s just Kageyama. I don’t know. I just… I love him. A lot.” There's a slight blush on his face as he says it. He's never admitted it out loud before. He’s whispered it to himself at night, underneath the shine of the moon or burrowed into his covers where there’s no one to hear. The words hang in the air, now, and Shouyou feels brave. He feels like he could jump and spike a star down to earth.

“Do you get it?”

She sort of gets it. But mostly Natsu is in wonder. She’s never heard her brother talk about anything with that much care, except maybe volleyball. Is this what it’s like to be in love? She wants to try it out.

Natsu nods to appease her brother, and ponders her situation. Somewhere, she knows having a crush on the same gender isn’t bad, but what she doesn’t get is why other people think it is. A classmate’s words ring back at her.

_“Eh? Of course girls have to like boys. Who else would they like?” Izumi Mio laughs._

_“Oh, right,” Natsu answers, an uncomfortable feeling forming in her chest. “I was just asking.”_

_“So which kind of boys do you like?” another girl asks eagerly, leaning into Natsu’s space. Natsu backs away and prays she isn’t blushing._

_Natsu fakes a giggle. She’s never really liked the question, and now she thinks she knows why. “I don’t know… someone who’s nice, I guess,” she answers lamely, and sees Mio frown._

Now, Natsu just wants to curl up in a ball in her brother’s warmth and never come out. It’s safe here, she decides, and away from all the other confusing people out in the world. Yet still, _still_ she needs to know.

“You like Kageyama, and he’s a boy,” Natsu mumbles into his worn shirt, and the words send a vibration through his chest. “So it’s okay if I like Hana-chan, and she’s a girl, right?”

“Natsu,” Shouyou says seriously. “It doesn’t matter who you like. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like boys, or girls, or boys _and_ girls, or don’t like anybody at all.”

“Then why is it bad?”

“Huh? It’s not bad.”

“Yes, it is, Mio-chan said that girls only like boys, and there wasn’t anything else.”

Shouyou frowns into orange hair identical his own. “Well, Mio-chan is wrong.”

She has no answer.

“Tell me about this girl,” Shouyou says, shifting so that Natsu is on his lap. She’s so much bigger now, and takes up all the space. Shouyou’s not tired, though, not yet. “Not Mio-chan. The other one.”

Natsu brightens visibly. She’s clearly been wanting someone to talk about this with. “Her name’s Hana-chan, and she really likes orange juice, just like me! So I saw her at the vending machine and she’s so nice and kind and her hair is so pretty… it's brown and soft-like and long. And she always does her classroom duties and lends people her notes, _and_ she’s like the top of the class! And I just…” Natsu sighs, and Shouyou’s heart warms at the sound.

He snuggles in closer and murmurs, “She sounds really amazing, Natsu. You can tell me about her whenever you want.”

“Hm, ‘kay,” Natsu says, and Shouyou smiles down in her hair. He just wants her to be happy, but with girls like Mio-chan (what a _stupid_ name for a _stupid_ person! She obviously doesn’t know anything), he’s not sure how Natsu will fare. But he was all right, with Kageyama, and he’ll be there for Natsu, so that’s really all that matters.

By now, they have been sitting in silence for about fifteen minutes, and Natsu’s breathing has evened out. Shouyou grins. If there’s one thing Natsu has inherited from him, it’s the ability to sleep wherever.

He puts her down on the couch and grabs a blanket to tuck her under, smiling fondly all the while. Then he gets up and walks into the hallway, but as he turns the corner, he immediately crashes into -

“Kageyama? What are you doing here?”

Said boy has a stricken look on his face, eyes wide and face red. He glances away. “I came to pick you up… remember?”

“Is it dinner time already?” Shouyou asks, glancing at the clock, then back to the boy in front of him. “Wait, why are you looking like that?”

Kageyama freezes, then schools his expression into his normal one. “Like what?” he asks coolly.

“No, no, no!” Shouyou says. “You looked…” _Frightened_ , he wants to finish. Nervous. Any reasons causing Kageyama to look like that start to form in his mind, and Shouyou feels himself pale as well.

He drags Kageyama to his room by the wrist and closes the door. “How long were you standing there?” Shouyou asks and Kageyama has the decency to look guilty.

“A while. Your mom let me in. She was doing the dishes, you probably didn’t hear the door open.”

“Did you hear me say…?”

Kageyama’s voice is gruff. “Yeah.”

In a sudden act of bravery, he turns his head to look Shouyou straight in the eye. “Did you really mean that? You know, what you said.”

Shouyou blinks. “Of course, Bakageyama!”

Kageyama treads to Shouyou’s bed, sits down carefully. Shouyou sits down next to him, thighs touching. Kageyama is quiet. He takes a deep breath.

“I… I love you too,” Kageyama mumbles, hiding his face in his hands. The blush persists, though, and can be seen even on the tips of his ears.

Shouyou laughs and Kageyama sends a weak glare his way; he knows Shouyou means well.

Shouyou leans in to plant a soft kiss on the boy’s lips. “I love you, Bakageyama.”

Kageyama rolls his eyes, turns to face him better. “I love you too, dumbass.”

“Hey!” Shouyou protests, then is laughing, because Kageyama has him pinned down to the bed, and is looking not-too-bad from above.

Kageyama grins, one of the kind of smiles that he has reserved only for Shouyou, where he doesn’t look like a pervert, or like he’s gonna murder you, and it takes up his whole face. Shouyou mentally adds that to his list of reasons why he likes Kageyama.

“Say it again,” he demands.

Shouyou laughs, repeating, “I love you, I love you, _I love you_ , especially when you buy me pork buns!”

That earns him a couple flicks to the forehead and more than a couple long kisses, and when they break apart, and are just staring at each other and breathing hard, Hinata hopes Natsu can have this someday too.

Kageyama clears his throat, looking flustered, and says. “I love you, Hinata.”

Hinata answers wordlessly, or rather by pulling Kageyama back down against his smiling mouth.


End file.
